Figure out Who You Are with Ancestry DNA!

This Ancestry DNA post was written on behalf of Ancestry.com, and may contain affiliate links.

Recently I had the chance to use the new Ancestry DNA testing, and it really blew my mind. My has been heavy into genealogy for generations, but despite this the Ancestry DNA results still had a few surprises in store for me. (Psst, make sure to check out the end of the post for an exclusive Ancestry DNA coupon code!)

When I was growing up, I always knew that I could go to my dad’s mom to ask about our family tree. Back then they didn’t have cool things like Ancestry DNA testing, or even the Internet for that matter. She had to do all of her research the old fashioned way; libraries, microfiches, family bibles. Just finding one generation of relatives would take her months if not years to put the pieces together.

When I was in eighth or ninth grade we did this cool project talking about where our families came from. My grandmother made me this great geneology chart that showed our family line all the way back to Ireland in the 1600s. She had some years of her life digging back and back into our family history to find out when our first relatives came to America. To this day, I can remember the feel of the crinkly paper with its aroma of freshly placed ink. It was like holding history in my hands.

That was probably the beginning of my fascination with ancestry. Lucky for me, my dad also caught this bug, and he has been continuing on my grandmother’s work not only for his side of the family, but for my mom’s side as well. Through their research using Ancestry.com, and his own digging, we’ve found so many more sides of the family that date back to England, Ireland, and even Scotland.

One of my absolute favorite stories that my dad shared with me was that one of my great grandfathers’s on my mom’s side was the leader at the Alamo. He had to leave the fort due to family health issues and handed the command of the Alamo over to my dad’s ancestor. Well, we all know how the Alamo went and sadly he perished when the fort was attacked. To this day, my dad likes to rib my mom that her ancestor set his up to be the fall guy when the Alamo fell.

Seriously, I could talk for hours and hours with my dad about all the cool stuff that he has found using his Ancestry.com membership!

That’s why when I was offered a chance to check out my Ancestry DNA, I was jumping for joy. I’ve always wanted to know the science behind what makes me, me. Before the test, I would’ve guessed that I would come up 99% Irish/Scottish based on what I knew from my dad’s research.

Once I ripped open my kit and collected enough saliva to fill the test, I put that bad boy in the mail and anxiously awaited my results. Six long weeks later, my results were loaded into my Ancestry.com account. My mind was blown.

I was right about the 99% part, but it was that I am 99% Western European. 1% of me is Pacific Islander. (Wonder why that 1% can’t conquer all the European so I don’t burn thinking about the sun). The test further breaks down this into my genetic make up. Check out my results.

The cool part about all of this is it really made me want to dig into the history of the area that I come from. The mosh of what I am makes a lot of sense because I come from an area that was conquered by Vikings and settled by the Celts. Both are large groups of people that would bring with them their rich heritage, but would also settle among the conquered people to continue their lines.

After learning more about the Celts and the Vikings, it makes sense why I’m a little bit Italian/Iberian Peninsual/Scandinavian. Those were all things the I really wasn’t expecting. I assume the Great Britain portion is because people of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland moved around a lot and borders were moved throughout history and that’s the general area of where we have documented we have family from.

This Ancestry DNA testing experience was really amazing, and you can even get connected with long lost cousins that might be related to you by a 4th great grandfather or back. Funny thing is, my dad’s brother has done the DNA testing already, because he popped up in my DNA results as a very close match. Guess it means my dad has to officially claim he as his own (haha, not that he doesn’t) because Ancestry DNA tells me I’m highly related to his brother.